CHAMPAIGN — The Centennial High School archery team is creating a “field of flags” on the lawn of Centennial High School beginning at 2 p.m. Sunday to commemorate Veterans Day.
The flags will be coupled with a banner honoring veterans in preparation for the Veterans Day holiday on Monday.
Archery team members and coaches will be joined by local military representatives and veterans. The public, especially veterans, are welcome to come watch as the field of flags is created and join in a brief concluding ceremony, which will include a message honoring veterans and the playing of the national anthem.
Coaches Ryan and Heather Miller came up with the idea as a team community service project because the archery team has several alumni who are current active-duty Marines, and one current senior archer also plans to join the military upon graduation.
“With so many local veterans from Champaign-Urbana and surrounding area, we wanted to teach our student-athletes the importance of thanking veterans for their service and sacrifice as well as appreciating what the U.S. flag represents,” Heather Miller said. “We thought this hands-on activity would engage our youth in a meaningful way.”
In addition to excelling on the archery range, archers participate in many community-service projects, including fundraising thousands of dollars annually in the fight against childhood cancer. The fund-raised money is annually donated to St. Jude Children’s Hospital, the national philanthropy for the National Archery in the Schools Program.
For more information about the event contact Heather Miller at chargerarchery@gmail.com.
The archery team consists of 103 ninth-, 10th, 11th- and 12th-grade male and female archers who are students at Centennial High School.
— Dave Hinton